a community rocked by hurricane sandy already. at this hour, luckily, no reports of any damage. >>> this video is truly inspirational. republican senator mark kirk from illinois making his first public appearance since having a stroke in january. he took part in the sky rise chicago climb. his goal? to climb 30 flights. instead, he climbed 37. >> great. a lot more steps than the 45 that my staff counted to the senate front door. [ laughter ] >> gretchen: also an inspiration, zach botcher, he became the first person ever to deplete the task with a bionic leg. congratulations. guys? >> steve: that is terrific. meanwhile, remember back in 2008 when then senator barak obama called president bush unpatriotic for increasing the national debt. >> the problem is that the way bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the bank of china in the name of our children. we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back. $30,000 for every man, woman and child. that's irresponsible! that's